Guards' Chapel at former Chelsea Barracks

Guards' Chapel at former Chelsea Barracks

This chapel, aligned north-west to south-east, is constructed of grey brick with yellow stock brick to the north and south sides, red brick dressings and bandings, and Portland stone and Bath stone decorative features. The roof is slated.

The building comprises a long six-bay nave with a south aisle, a narrow west vestibule with porches on the north and south sides, and a single-bay chancel terminating in an apse. A circular stair turret on the north side, set in the angle between the nave and vestibule, provides access to the gallery. The organ chamber is treated as a short transept on the north side of the chancel. To either side of the apse are small rooms linked by a passageway around the rear of the apse, which appear externally as an ambulatory and small gabled chapels. The vestry, dating from around 1890, is situated to the south-east of the chancel and is linked to the south aisle by a single-storey arched entrance lobby.

The design is eclectic, principally north Italian Romanesque with Byzantine and Venetian Gothic elements. The west gable features a bellcote (bell removed) and a large eight-lobed rose window with cast-iron circular tracery, beneath which are three narrow windows. Several windows have metal frames with interlaced geometric patterns; others have modern metal replacements. The apse is punctuated by an arcade of windows divided by engaged columns and gauged red-brick heads, with triple windows to the lower ambulatory. The north and south elevations adopt an austere Venetian Gothic style with paired round-headed windows beneath pointed gauged-brick arches containing roundels, set within recessed panels. The eaves are decorated with saw-toothed brickwork, as are the recessed wall panels. Gabled north and south porches are carried on stone columns with carved capitals, and the entrance doors feature coffered panels.

Inside, the wide-span nave roof is carried on slender open timber trusses with paired crown-posts arranged in three transverse bays, the central bay being arch-braced. The columns of the nave arcade have Romanesque capitals terminating with a cul-de-lampe (triangular corbel) at the west end. The eastern bay is included within the sanctuary platform, separated by a dwarf wall. The nave walls contain four commemorative hand-painted and gilded tiled panels depicting David and Joshua on the north wall and St John and St James on the south wall, each set in a moulded glazed tile frame. The panels depicting St James and Joshua bear the names of private soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Scots Guards who died between 1885 and 1887, and the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, who died between 1885 and 1888. The other panels each have four empty spaces, presumably intended for additional names. These are well-crafted commemorations for ranks not commonly represented in memorials before the twentieth century, and are unusual for their sparse outline style and gilding.

A triple arch on columns with crocketed capitals opens into the chancel and thence the apse, each successively raised on steps. The chancel floor is laid with ornate polychrome tiles. The apse is framed by an arch with responds carried on coupled columns on deep corbels. The sanctuary features a mosaic floor with monogrammed panels and a low cast-iron altar-rail; the altar has been removed but the marble plinth and mosaic border remain. The nave floor is currently covered with vinyl sheeting of no special interest. The organ has been removed. A newel stair on the north-west side leads to the gallery, which is defined by a timber balustrade set behind a large round-arched opening; seating has been removed. The font has been removed from the west vestibule, although the polychrome tile floor surround and marble plinth survive. The interiors of the vestry and ancillary spaces adjoining the apse are of no special interest.